So far, the North American box office of "Titanic" has managed to exceed $300 million, but the box office trend of this phenomenal blockbuster is still extremely strong. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Info box office analysts generally predict that "Titanic" is likely to recoup all of its huge investment of $265 million at the North American box office alone, and "Titanic" may reach a jaw-dropping number at the overseas box office. The film industry's fledgling rethinking of big-budget films in recent years has become fragile as a result, and Hollywood's major studios have begun to look for their own blockbuster projects. In this case, Firefly Group's sudden announcement to stop its special effects company's foreign cooperation in the digital field is tantamount to pouring a basin of cold water on all Hollywood studios outside the Firefly system. ”

According to Jeffrey Katzenberg, chairman of the Firefly Group, the Firefly Group will increase the annual 'blockbuster' films from the current three to six per year in the next few years, at least half of which will be CG-focused special effects blockbusters. ”

Since 1991, the digital field has won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects for four consecutive years with the outstanding special effects in films such as "Terminator 2", "Tornado" and "Jurassic Park". At the same time, the digital field also has the largest rendering farm in the industry, which has been responsible for more than 50% of Hollywood's special effects rendering work in recent years. ”

"Relevant analysts expect that because the digital field has a large number of Hollywood's unique CG special effects technology, such as the large-scale war scene design in "The Mummy 2", etc., the sudden cessation of foreign cooperation in the digital field may even make Hollywood film companies that cannot use the technology in the digital field form a year-long 'fault' in special effects blockbusters, which will undoubtedly have a strong impact on the film business of Time Warner, Paramount, Sony and other companies. MGM Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox will have a significant increase in market share. Affected by this news, in the past week, the stock prices of Time Warner, Viacom and other companies have fallen slightly, and MGM Pictures, which is most closely related to the Firefly Group, has further risen in its share price, rising more than 9% in a week. ”

Michael Eisner dropped the latest issue of Premiere magazine and stood up in distress and walked to the window, thinking about what to do next.

In addition to this analytical article, this issue of Premiere magazine announced the latest annual Hollywood Power List.

In addition to Eric Williams occupying the top position without suspense, Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of the Firefly Group, did not tie for the first place with Eric as the controller of the Firefly Group as usual in previous years, but was listed separately and occupied the second place, this change in detail undoubtedly shows that Eric is becoming more and more transcendent in Hollywood. Third place is still not about Universal, but last year's most popular MGM, Drew Barrymore and Amy Pascal tied for third place, and it was Michael Eisner's turn to take fourth place.

I don't know whether it was intentional or unintentional, but in the top 10 of this year's Hollywood power list, in addition to big movie company executives and top directors and producers, there is also a sudden appearance of digital CEO Stan Winston.

That is to say, the Firefly Group alone has occupied three places in the top ten of the Hollywood power list, if you count the list of MGM and Fox, the Firefly system has basically controlled half of Hollywood, which is almost the same as the influence of the Firefly Group in reality, and even, if you simply calculate the market share, because the "Titanic", which was not favored by everyone, broke out unexpectedly, Firefly, MGM and Fox will also have a share of more than 50% in the Hollywood box office market this year, while Warner, Paramount, Universal, and Sony Pictures, the four major film companies, can only share the remaining 50% of the box office share with countless other second- and third-tier film companies.

Plans never keep up with change.

Michael Eisner sighed in his heart, remembering his own thoughts before the release of "Titanic", and couldn't help but smile self-deprecatingly.

However, there are still pressing issues to be addressed.

In the past week, after Firefly announced the cessation of foreign cooperation in the digital field, Industrial Light & Magic, which was almost about to reach a cooperation intention with the world, suddenly changed its mind, and Microsoft almost reacted quickly and said that it would invest $100 million again for the technical research and development of Industrial Light & Magic in CG special effects.

Although industrial light and magic has been far inferior to the digital field over the years, the special effects accumulated in the past 20 years are not comparable to other small special effects companies that have just been established in Hollywood.

In response to the news announced by Firefly, this week, in addition to Microsoft's large-scale injection of funds into Industrial Light and Magic, Sony, Paramount and Time Warner also announced the establishment of their own film and television special effects departments.

Universal's board of directors of course began to discuss the issue, and Edgar Bronfman, chairman of the parent company, Sigram Group, called to inquire about it.

But Michael Eisner knew that setting up a dedicated special effects department would not work.

He still vividly remembers Eric's words when various companies competed for the rights to the "Transformers" movie last year, the rendering farm built in Florida at a cost of $100 million in the digital field alone is not something that other second- or third-rate special effects companies can easily catch up, and over the years, in order to develop a variety of CG special effects technology, how much has been invested in the digital field, although there is no specific data, but it can be imagined that this number is also very appalling.

What's more, if a special effects company wants to accumulate enough technology, it needs to be acquired through practice during the production of a large number of CG shots.

According to the news revealed by Firefly, Firefly Group will have three films featuring CG special effects every year in the future, so MGM and Twentieth Century Fox can only have as many as Fireflies even if they are added together, and the three companies can provide six special effects film orders for the digital field every year, and there are countless other films that need to use a small number of special effects scenes, which provides a sufficient technology accumulation platform for the digital field. And this is impossible for Time Warner, Paramount, Sony, or even Universal itself.

Michael Eisner's first thought was of course to unite, but it can be seen from the reaction of ILM supported by Microsoft after the announcement of Firefly that everyone has their own little calculations in their hearts, and it is not easy to unite.

While he was thinking about things, there was a knock on the office door, Michael Eisner answered, and his assistant pushed the door in and said, "Mr. Eisner, I have inquired, Eric Williams has been to San Francisco for the past two days, and it seems that he has secretly developed a music player for Firefly." ”

"Music player?" Michael Eisner asked suspiciously, although the MP3 player had been developed at the end of last year, but in recent months, Firefly Electronics has been preparing various preparations in the early stage, so it is still basically in a state of secrecy.

Michael Eisner's assistant nodded, "It's a new digital audio player, and it's a coincidence that you asked me to participate in the company's negotiations with Miss Nicole Kidman last week about the contract for a sequel to The Mummy, and I happened to see Miss Kidman use this kind of player, which is only slightly larger than the old lighter, and uses a micro hard drive as a storage medium, which can store hundreds of songs in MP3 audio format inside, and does not need traditional audio carriers such as tapes and discs. By the way, I just made a special call to the record company, and they also received an offer from Yahoo Network late last year to sell songs on the Yahoo Music Store, and the two sides are still negotiating. ”

Michael Eisner's eyes lit up immediately, and he was already vaguely aware of a problem.

If everything is as the assistant said, then, if this music player wants to be promoted, it must need a large number of genuine music resources as support, and the reason why Sony bought Columbia Records back then was because of this consideration. Although Firefly Records has launched some good singers in recent years, in terms of heritage, Firefly Records is still 108,000 miles away from Universal Records, Warner Records and Sony Records.

"You're doing a great job," Michael Eisner said without hesitation, adding, "Also, give me a copy of the documents that the record company negotiated with Yahoo, and then help me make an appointment with Doug Morris." ”

Doug Morris is the CEO of Universal Music, and the MCA group that Seagram took over from Panasonic mainly includes Universal Pictures and Universal Music, but Michael Eisner is not in charge of Universal Music's business.

……

"Fireflyer, which is the most appropriate name we finally discussed, is actually a somewhat conceited but sincerely loyal elf in the fairy tale Peter Pan, born from the laughter of a baby in Renton, in which Fireflyer ends up married to Tinker Bell. It can be said that this is a cute character with some small shortcomings, but the flaws are not hidden, our MP3 player product, the pursuit of the same experience as a close friend, just in line with the character of Fireflyer, at the same time, Fireflyer can also be seen as an extension of Firefly. ”

In an office building in Oakland, San Francisco, Eric and Chris sat in a conference room with a group of Firefly Electronics executives, quietly listening to Bill Olson, president of Firefly Electronics.

Bill Olsen is an executive that Chris poached from Apple, he was originally a vice president of product marketing at Apple, originally, even with the backing of the Firefly Group, but Bill Olsen is still unlikely to look at Firefly Electronics, a small company that has just started, but because Apple has been declining in the past two years, the management has jumped ship to find another job, plus Eric and Chris promised enough salary and option rewards, Bill Olsen is willing to come over as the president of Firefly Electronics, mainly responsible for the marketing of MP3 players。

Eric listened to Bill Olson and said, "Fireflyer is a good name, but since you mentioned Tinkerbell, Bill, don't you think we can also apply for this trademark as another brand of MP3 players, perhaps, for women or something?"

Bill Olsen smiled: "Eric, your suggestion was actually mentioned by Victor at the original naming meeting, but after we discussed it, we temporarily dismissed this idea. ”

Eric looked at Victor McNelli, CEO of Firefly Electronics, Victor McNelli graduated from Stanford University with a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, and was recruited by Chris to be in charge of MP3 and e-book project development Before Victor McNelli was in charge of product development and production at IBM, although the position was not too high, but his own professional ability was also very good, Chris asked the headhunter to find a candidate for three months before determining the candidate for Victor McNelli.

Victor McNelli, a slightly chubby bearded white middle-aged man who was a little unkempt, smiled when he saw Eric looking at him, gestured to Bill Olsen, and said with a smile: "Eric, let Bill tell you, he's the expert in this area." ”

Eric looked at Bill Olsen again.

Bill Olsen also did not sell the lawsuit, saying: " That's the case, Eric, in the current situation, we only have such a product as Fireflyer, maybe we can name the pink model as you said Tinkerbell, but this will definitely dilute the brand image of the player, which is not conducive to the promotion of the product, on the other hand, this player should be for all consumers, not just women, even if it is a pink style, there should be many male consumers who like it, so if we set a gender distinction for this product, it is likely to cause trouble to some consumers, after all, when some people feel that some products are just for girls, male consumers are likely not to buy it. ”

Eric nodded and said, "Okay, you go ahead." ”

Bill Olsen switched to a PPT page, but still added, "However, Eric, the trademark of Tinkerbell is really good, and I will ask the legal department to take Tinkerbell by the way when applying for the trademark Fireflyer." (To be continued.) )